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My windows have been opened! Perhaps not every day, but even just some fresh air is very welcome after a long, stagnant winter.
As a reminder of the format, I'm writing one of these columns and filling it with songs from a variety of genres of music. I don't expect anyone to listen to all of these songs! Some months, you may even not be interested in any of them, and that's fine!
However, it is my sincere hope that some of you might find some new songs and artists that you like. All of these songs are widely available on streaming services and by doing some quick searching on Youtube and such, and if I want to highlight something harder to find, I'll include detailed instructions on how to do so.
Here are my picks for this month:
I Can Die But Once
-- Nechochwen
I'm sort of cheating, here -- Nechochwen is an Appalachian black metal band from West Virginia. The band's name comes from the Lenape language, as the band's frontman is of mixed Lenape and Shawnee heritage. I say I'm cheating because, despite this being a metal band, this song is enjoyable by most people. It's super calming and peaceful, with whispered vocals over some acoustic guitar strumming forming the backbone of the song's atmosphere.
You definitely don't have to be a metalhead to enjoy this song -- although I would warn you not to stray too far into their discography if that type of thing bothers you! But, if you're looking for some calming, springlike folk music, you could do a lot worse than this song.
Against the Wind
-- Moya Brennan
Moya Brennan is an Irish folk singer and songwriter, and odds are, if you've listened to enough Celtic music, you know her. Even if you don't know her specifically, you almost certainly know her family: one of her sisters is Enya, and she, along with multiple of her family members, is among the founders of Clannad.
This song will always be synonymous with thunderstorms to me, so I tend to dust it off more as we come into the spring and summer months. The song is talking more about standing up for your beliefs against peer pressure than it is literal wind, but that doesn't stop my brain from associating the spiraling, swirling pattern to the song, along with the lyrics, with the particular type of wind that comes from a thunderstorm's outflow. This song is definitely a high pick for me for this time of year!
Heaven and Earth
(Land Theme) -- Kitaro
This is from the soundtrack to an Oliver Stone movie from 1993 about Vietnam. I've never seen the film, to be clear -- and from what I've read, I doubt I would enjoy it much. The song just popped up one day on autoplay, and it's had a home on one of my playlists ever since. I generally prefer other music to soundtrack scores, but they definitely have a place in my rotation and there are times where a sweeping orchestral piece just hits the spot.
And boy, is this piece sweeping! It repeats the core theme several times, building on it each time with breathtaking intensity but leaving ample space between each swell to pause and contemplate the music in a way that I really enjoy. Knowing little of what this track is from does absolutely nothing to detract from it for me, so I have no qualms about recommending it to other people who might also have never encountered the film that it is from.
Pomegranate Seeds
-- Julian Moon
I don't actually know anything about this artist, as this song is another autoplay find and as near as I can tell, she's a relatively underground independent artist. Either way, the song absolutely slaps and if you're in the mood for some upbeat, poppy/peppy music, you can't go wrong with this one. I don't generally listen to a lot of pop-style music, so if I'm recommending it, I find it truly exceptional.
Of course, the Greek myth connection doesn't hurt, and the references to daffodils are seasonally fitting at the moment, as is the idea of Persephone's return in spring. Hopefully she will be releasing more music, as her discography is pretty slim at the moment, although she has been releasing singles fairly consistently, at least. Regardless, I'm rooting for her!
Wayward Sun -- Xaon
One of the most challenging things about this column is that I get to recommend one song for some of my absolute favorite artists, and hope that's enough to get people interested. My metal pick for the month is Wayward Sun, by Xaon -- a symphonic death metal band from France. The challenge is that I could have picked probably a half dozen songs by them, easily, to be the "try this" song, which is pretty remarkable considering they only have three albums (and they have improved tremendously from their first album).
Xaon manages to nail the fusion of symphonic orchestrations, metal guitars and powerful vocals perfectly -- neither overpowers the other, with both existing in perfect, complementary balance. If you've ever listened to symphonic metal in general, you probably know that this is a difficult balance to find and many bands in the subgenre never find it. If you haven't...take my word for it.
I selected this particular song because it has a banger of a chorus that is easy to understand and sing along with, and if you make it through the song's initial tempestuous first minute to that first chorus, you're just in. The triumphant tones of the song's symphonic elements will carry you the rest of the way. Carry my dreams to the west, while the east lies dire!
If you like this song and want to go further with Xaon, some of my other favorites of theirs include If I Had Wings and In Pyrrhic Seas off the album The Lethean; Monolith, Carillon, and Eros off the album Solipsis; and Zarathustra off their debut album The Drift -- but these guys just don't miss and you can't go wrong. Allegedly they might have a new album coming this year, too, which I'm super stoked for!
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Arianna McKee is design editor for The Express.